HONG KONG, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Health Ministry announced on Friday new measures to combat influenza H1N1, as infected cases continued to rise in the Asian region.
Singapore's Health Ministry said that temperature screening in bid to prevent the spread of Influenza A/H1N1 at local border checkpoints will be discontinued with effect from this Saturday.
The Health Ministry said in a statement that as Influenza A/ H1N1 has become endemic among global communities, and with localized community spread in Singapore, temperature screening at borders is now less useful than before there was local community spread.
The decision to stop temperature screening is among a series of measures the government has taken in light of the recent flu development.
Earlier this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) informed that countries are no longer required to submit regular reports of individual laboratory-confirmed cases and deaths, which is because the reporting of such numbers is no longer a useful monitoring tool. The latest data also shows that 13 percent of patients here with flu-like symptoms are due to Influenza A/H1N1.
Following the WHO's instruction, Singapore's Health Ministry announced on Wednesday two measures to track the progress of the flu.
First, to continue influenza biosurveillance and report its finding regularly, and second, to report the number of confirmed cases who are still in hospital.
Thailand reported 146 more influenza A/H1N1 cases on Friday, bringing the country's total number to 3,071, according to local media report.
Of the cumulative total cases, 2,735 patients have recovered, 14 people died and about eight others are in serious condition, the Channel 7 quoted ministry sources as saying.
New Zealand's confirmed deaths from A/H1N1 flu remained at six on Friday, while the total number of confirmed cases rose to 1555,up from 1431 on Thursday, the Ministry of Health said.
Hospitals throughout New Zealand were restricting visitors as cases of Influenza A/H1N1 and seasonal flu continue to rise.
Middlemore hospital in South Auckland, one of the country's biggest, has begun restricting visitors to help protect patients and the community from increasing flu-related illness.
Dunedin hospital in South Island is already enforcing visiting hours to reduce opportunities for people to bring flu into hospital and Hawke's Bay will begin this on Monday.
Wellington Hospital - which is at full capacity - said anyone who visits with flu symptoms is being asked to leave.
The Ministry of Health is advising anyone who has underlying medical conditions and who gets seasonal or influenza A/H1N1 to monitor their condition carefully.
Malaysian Health Ministry Secretary General Ismail Merican said that 53 new A/H1N1 flu cases were confirmed in Malaysia on Friday, adding the total cases to 627.
Among the news cases, Ismail said that 41 were imported cases and 12 were locally transmitted cases.
Hong Kong confirmed 66 new cases of influenza A/H1N1 on Friday, taking the total to 1,178 in the city, according to local health authorities.
A spokesman for the Department of Health of Hong Kong Friday said the new cases involved 35 males and 31 females, aged between 24 days and 51 years.
Macao reported eight more confirmed cases of Influenza A/H1N1 on Friday, bringing the total number of such cases to 81 so far.
Three of the newly confirmed cases were imported while the other five were locally infected, according to Macao's Health Bureau.
The three imported cases concerned a 21-year-old local woman who studied in Australia, and fell ill after returning to Macao, a 24-year-old local woman who had been to Hong Kong, and an 11-year-old Australian boy who arrived in Macao Thursday, the Bureau said.
